Tales of the Vuduri: Year Three

by Michael Brachman

  In the modern version, we don't even know what happened to her until Rome's Evolution whereupon we discover that she got to Earth and was instrumental in reorganizing the Onsiras behind MASAL's Sipre. She was the one responsible for elevating the tribe's numbers by kidnapping the Onsiras on Helome and taking them back to Earth. She was also the one that gave Troutman and Steele the wherewithal to attempt Rei's assassination. She died in the showdown in SoCal between Rei, Rome and Bonnie versus the remaining Onsiras.

  But we aren't through with her yet. Even though her body is dead, she made her way to Heaven or at least Purgatory. Aason meets her when he gets up there and they make amends, kind of. Bottom line: I liked the name and the character was useful in moving the plot along so thank you, Sussen, for being so evil and so flexible!

  Entry 3-239: August 22, 2015

 

  What has gone before, again - 1

  Back when Rome's Revolution was the three novel version called VIRUS 5, I was planning on releasing each part roughly every six months. That meant for early readers, there would be some delay between finishing one novel and starting the next. As a reminder of what has gone before, I led off each book with a preface entitled What has gone before in the front of Book 2 and Book 3. Kind of a synopsis.

  I wanted to show you that section but it is a little long for this forum so I will break it up into three sections. Here is the first part:

  What Has Gone Before - Part 2:

  After nearly a year, Rei, along with Rome who is now pregnant, arrive at the colony world of Deucado towing Rei’s enormous spaceship called the Ark II. On their way there, they discover the sarcophagus, the sleeping chamber, of Rei’s mission commander, Captain Keller and they take it with them. If possible, Rei and Rome have fallen even more deeply in love during the journey.

  Upon their arrival at Deucado, for no fathomable reason, they are attacked and barely survive using a desperate jump through a PPT tunnel directly to the surface of Deucado. Once they reach the surface, they discover that Deucado is a prison world and that the mandasurte, the mind-deaf, are being kept there and away from all technology against their will. Rome finds her long-lost father, Fridone and they join a small rebel group, called the Ibbrassati, hidden in the northern woods. Rei’s fellow 21st century colonists are reanimated and begin to precipitate a war with the Vuduri.

  Rome has some extreme complications with her pregnancy and even though it means almost certain death, Rei and Rome are forced to fly to the Vuduri compound in the hopes of saving their unborn child. The behavior of the Vuduri and the Overmind of Deucado is very strange. Rome is reabsorbed into the Overmind and seemingly rejects Rei but actually saves his life by having him banished. Rome is able to contact her unborn son, Aason, and has him stop the process that was causing her so much pain.

  Tomorrow, the second part of what has gone before.

  Entry 3-240: August 23, 2015

 

  What has gone before, again - 2

  Back when Rome's Revolution was the three novel version called VIRUS 5, I had planning on releasing each part roughly every six months. That meant for early readers, there would be some delay between finishing one novel and starting the next. As a reminder of what has gone before, I put in this little preface called "What has gone before" in the front of Book 3.

  Here is the second part of that section:

  Rei begins his journey back to the hidden enclave in the northern woods. Along the way he is captured but escapes because MINIMCOM, who was crushed beneath the crashed Ark, is evolving into a hybrid computer/spaceship and is experimenting with PPT tunnels that work within a gravity well. In the meantime, Rome engages in a series of conversations with the Overmind of Deucado and eventually is able to show it the error of its ways.

  Rei discovers that a pill that OMCOM gave him back at the Stellar Cartography station on Tabit has modified his genetics and gives him, among other things, a kind of sonar-vision and a “telephone in his head.”

  After Rome and the Overmind come to a meeting of the minds, the Overmind reveals to Rome that there is more to the prison world that she knew. The Overmind informs Rome that there is a secret society on Earth, called the Onsiras, which are not only dedicated to the imprisonment but also the eventual eradication of the mandasurte. In point of fact, there is an even more sinister plan in the works but the Overmind of Deucado does not know exactly what is entailed.

  As Rei makes his way closer to the hidden base, he encounters the Deucadons, descendants of the Ark IV who landed on the planet 500 years earlier but who have remained hidden underground because of the continual bombardment of the planet by asteroids and senseless slaughter at the hands of the Vuduri.

  Tomorrow, the final part of this little preface.

  Entry 3-241: August 24, 2015

 

  What has gone before, again - 3

  Back when Rome's Revolution was the three novel version called VIRUS 5, I had planning on releasing each part roughly every six months. That meant for early readers, there would be some delay between finishing one novel and starting the next. As a reminder of what has gone before, I put in this little preface called "What has gone before" in the front of Book 3.

  Here is the final part of that section:

  Rome and the Overmind work out a careful choreography to defuse the coming war between Rei’s fellow colonists and the Vuduri ruling the planet. Rei and Rome are reunited and after some travails, they prevail and peace is returned to the planet by getting all parties to acknowledge that the Deucadons are the rightful owners of the planet.

  Rome gives birth to her son, Aason, whose genetics are complex. He is part human, part Vuduri and part cybernetic. After a short period of peace, Aason allows OMCOM to channel through him and OMCOM tells the assembled group that the battle for the stars is about to begin.

  This next part has since been excised from the modern version of Rome's Revolution

  Rei and Rome, along with Aason are immediately incapacitated as a creature the size of a small asteroid, called a Bridadira (which means Protector) comes to the Tau Ceti system. Aason is able to communicate with the Bridadira named Lawlidon and gets him to stop hurting his parents. Lawlidon is one of the creatures created when the mutations within the VIRUS units occurred back on Tabit. Other creatures, called Cecetiras, (hunter/killers), are on their way to extinguish all life before the Stareater can.

  A battle ensues. Lawlidon and MINIMCOM and the Vuduri warships fight off the Cecetiras and eventually prevail. Meanwhile, a spy for the Onsiras, whose name is Sussen, tries to slip away undetected during the fight but her escape is discovered as she is leaving the star system.

  With the battle apparently won, there is only a short-lived joy as Rei, Rome and the others watch in horror as MINIMCOM, the computer/spaceship hybrid crashes into Lawlidon, disappearing completely. As our story continues, Rei and Rome are distraught at the apparent destruction of their friend and protector, MINIMCOM.

  Starting tomorrow, at long last, we will try to bring MINIMCOM, our favorite character, back from the dead.

  Entry 3-242: August 25, 2015

 

  The MINIMCOM phenomenon

  When somebody is planning out a TV show, they have the stars and then other actors to fill in around them. They have to give the secondary stars some quirks so they stand out and can be distinguished from one another. Sometimes, a bit player or secondary star becomes so popular that the show evolves around them.

  Some examples? How about Fonzie on Happy Days? Prudence on One Big Happy? Everbody knows who Urkel is from Family Matters. Michael J. Fox rose to the top on Family Ties. Even on The Big Bang Theory, Jim Parson's Sheldon Cooper was not the original focus of the show. Johnny Galecki's Leonard Hofstadter was supposed to be.

  So too, it was with MINIMCOM. He was never supposed to be important. He was supposed to be a bit character. I patterned his personality off of a cross between my immensely talented brother Bruce and Bomb 20 of Dark Star, one o
f my favorite movies. If you have never seen Dolittle's discussion of phenomenology with the bomb, you can see it here.

  Anyway, the bomb and by extension, MINIMCOM was a bit fussy and very dedicated to their job. But the difference is, the bomb eventually blew up and MINIMCOM got crushed beneath a 7000 metric tonne Ark and evolved into something else.

  That something else has become wildly popular and MINIMCOM is the one character that everyone who reads the books tell me they love. So I cannot leave him dead. Tomorrow, he returns.

  Entry 3-243: August 26, 2015

 

  MINIMCOM lives! (again)

  Two and half weeks ago, I left you hanging with the apparent suicide of the starship that had once been an auto-pilot computer named MINIMCOM. This came at the end of the since-excised climax of the original part 2 of Rome's Revolution before I crushed it down into a three-part novel.

  But, as I mentioned yesterday, MINIMCOM is one of my most popular characters so I certainly couldn't let him stay dead. Rei used logic to figure out he couldn't be. Here is Rei's epiphany:

  “MINIMCOM!” Rome shouted again in anguish, for what seemed to be the thousandth time. She was standing in her room within the Vuduri compound along with her husband Rei, her father Fridone, and Captain Maury Keller, Commander of the Ark II mission. Her newborn son, Aason, was lying in the Vuduri version of a cradle or bassinet next to her bed. It resembled a blanket suspended between metal frames but was more substantial.

  “Rei…” Rome said plaintively, turning to her husband who was standing next to her. She had no idea of what else to say. She was sick to her stomach. The sight of MINIMCOM crashing into Lawlidon’s parabolic reflector felt like a family member dying. Except for the remains of the smashed reflector and the sizeable crater the collision left behind, there was no sign that MINIMCOM ever existed.

  “He’s got to be OK,” Rei muttered, trying to be encouraging, as he stared at the images on the screen. His instincts told him MINIMCOM was gone and yet there was something that prevented him from saying so. His mind raced trying to put the pieces together.

  “Nothing could have survived that,” noted Keller, fatalistically. “We saw him crash. Face it. He’s gone.”

  “Som, bir qua rezei?” asked Fridone.

  Rei shook his head. The answer was on the tip of his tongue. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers. “I got it,” he said. “This is MINIMCOM’s projector,” Rei announced, pointing to the small conical object sitting on Rome’s sofa table providing the live video feed in front them. “MINIMCOM controls the transmissions of the star probes and we still have an image. So he must be alive,” Rei answered triumphantly.

  Tomorrow, MINIMCOM re-emerges. Different. Better.

  Entry 3-244: August 27, 2015

 

  The New MINIMCOM

  Yesterday, I showed you a scene from the original long-form version of Rome's Revolution back when it was still the three part novel called VIRUS 5. Rei concluded that their starship friend and companion could not have been destroyed. Here is the scene where MINIMCOM reemerges, evolved, into the character we know today. This dovetails into the modern version so nothing was lost when the scene was thrown into the scrap pile:

  Each of those wishbones split into two more and then two more. When the process was completed, there were thirty or more shapes where there once had been one.

  One of the black wishbones moved off and started to change again, churning and twisting into a cylinder. Wings formed. The front extruded and a windshield came into place. On the underside, three EG lifter pods appeared. A cluster of PPT projectors and plasma thrusters sprouted along the rear edges of the wings. The morphing process slowed but it was clear that this new shape was a negative version of MINIMCOM or his successor. The starship in front of them was not quite as tapered and wasp-waisted as before. Also, the new ship looked larger than MINIMCOM was before the crash. And it was all black.

  “MINIMCOM!” Rei shouted, more from relief than anything else.

  “Yes?” MINIMCOM replied as if nothing had happened. MINIMCOM had elected to retain the tinny quality to his voice, even though he had grown in size and stature. His voice issued from the speaker built within the image projector sitting on the small table.

  “I qua fica vaz?” asked Fridone.

  “You crashed into Lawlidon deliberately. Why?” Rome asked.

  “I needed to ‘deposit’ the remains of the Cecetira within Lawlidon before they got loose,” replied MINIMCOM. “He has the necessary processing facilities to neutralize the less-civilized VIRUS units on a more permanent basis than I could. In other words, he purified me.”

  MINIMCOM's statements don't really make sense at this point. Tomorrow, the underlying scientific (or at least science fiction) explanation.

  Entry 3-245: August 28, 2015

 

  Purification

  Yesterday, we saw that MINIMCOM emerged from within Lawlidon as a new, larger starship. He was all white when he went in and was now all black when he came out. This ties in nicely with the more modern version where MINIMCOM switches to all-black much earlier in the novel. Here is MINIMCOM's explanation:

  “I needed to ‘deposit’ the remains of the Cecetira within Lawlidon before they got loose,” replied MINIMCOM. “He has the necessary processing facilities to neutralize the less-civilized VIRUS units on a more permanent basis than I could. In other words, he purified me.”

  “How did he do that?” Rei asked Rome. He turned to MINIMCOM’s projector. “How did you, I don’t know, extract yourself?” he asked. “I don’t even know what to call it.”

  “My fundamental composition is made up of a series of elements,” answered the spaceship/computer. “Each of those elements has a nano-processor which is aware of its origin. While their physical connection to one another was broken as they traveled through the purification process, they agreed to coalesce…”

  Rome rolled her eyes as she sensed another long-winded explanation. MINIMCOM clearly loved the sound of his own voice. “Rei,” Rome said, interrupting, “It does not matter. What matters is that he is back and he is whole. Is this correct? MINIMCOM, are you all right?”

  “I am functional, thank you but I am not exactly whole. I do not know if machines have a genetic structure but my former self comprises approximately 93.1 per cent of this form, if that is what you are asking.”

  “Genetic structure? 93%?” Rei said. “What’s the other 7%?”

  “Besides the original space tug and OMCOM’s memrons plus my constructors, of course. You will recall that they were made up of modified elements of the original VIRUS units and some star probes. The biggest problem is that I was unable to completely remove all traces of Lawlidon and the Cecetira from my composition. That is the 7%.”

  “The Cecetira?” Rome asked. “Can they get loose?”

  “No, I am completely re-integrated right now,” MINIMCOM replied smugly. “The ones that remain have agreed to respond as part of me.”

  “How do you even function?” Keller asked. “Don’t you think you ought to get rid of the foreign elements?”

  “One never knows when one might need their rather unique properties so keeping a small part of them cannot be a bad thing,” MINIMCOM replied. “At least this is what they told me.”

  “Why are you all black?” Rei asked. “Not white like before?”

  “My outer hull is made up principally of former Lawlidon elements. It seemed appropriate.”

  So there you have it. The grand unification of the older, more detailed, slightly more boring version and the modern version. Now we have to deal with the real crisis which is Sussen's escape and the fact that time is running out for the residents of Deucado.

  Entry 3-246: August 29, 2015

 

  How much time?

  In both the original long-form version of Rome's Revolution, back when it was called VIRUS 5 and the modern version, the crisis that begins Act 3 (technically, Part 3), was the fact that Sussen t
he spy had slipped away. In the modern version, it was done surreptitiously. In the older version, it was in the heat of battle. Regardless, Rome and Rei knew she was on her way back to Earth to inform MASAL and the Onsiras that the mandasurte were now liberated and MASAL's plans for genocide would be derailed.

  In both versions, using a series of logical steps, Rome and Rei conclude they are the only two people on all of Deucado that can go after her and try and stop her. This poses a problem because Sussen had a head start and the vehicle she used was built for high speed. Plus, Rome had just given birth and there was no way she would leave her newborn behind. What to do? He had to give them a hard time but MINIMCOM had the answer, of course:

  “MINIMCOM, how long do we have?” Rei asked.

  “Given the type of vehicle hijacked, assuming a sustained velocity of 150c, they will arrive at Earth in 28.96 days but you do not have that much time.”

  “What the hell is he talking about, Bierak?” Keller demanded.

  “Hold on, sir,” Rei asked. “MINIMCOM. Why don’t we have the 28 days?”

  MINIMCOM answered, “They only have to get within distance to connect, not be physically present.”

  Rei turned to Rome. “How far out does the Overmind reach?”

  “It follows the strength of gravity so it can reach out perhaps a half light year or a bit more,” answered his wife.